Download Copyright 1999 The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) All Rights

Copyright 1999 The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)
All Rights Reserved
The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)
March 15, 1999 Monday Met and metro Editions
SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 04E
LENGTH: 434 words
HEADLINE: Music review; Ensemble, pianist collaborate nicely
BYLINE: ADLER ANDREW, Courier-Journal Critic
Dorian Wind Quintet
As one of North America's bestknown chamber ensembles of its kind, the Dorian Wind Quintet has the privilege
both of commissioning works and collaborating with some of the finer soloists now active. Each of these came into
play yesterday at the University of Louisville School of Music, where the Dorian performed an eclectic program as
part of the Chamber Music Society's current season. Besides the regular membership - flutist Marianne Gedigian,
oboist Gerard Reuter, clarinetist Jerry Kirkbride, bassoonist Jane Taylor and hornist Nancy Billman - pianist
Richard Ormrod was on hand to participate in music of Beethoven and the contemporary American composer Billy
Childs. Principal attentions were given over to Childs' "A Day in the Forest of Dreams,'' which the Los
Angelesbased composer wrote for the Dorian in 1997. It is one of those creations that depends, perhaps a little too
selfconsciously, on atmosphere and evocations of particular moods and imagery. When you open such a piece with
an extended flute trill, it soon becomes clear that these forest murmurs will be unmistakably apparent.
This first of two movements, called "First Glimpse of Sunlight,'' is static and blocky, arranging its harmonic
language amid a context of deliberate fantasy. Afterward comes an "Afternoon Dance,'' and here the intense
surface energies propel a listener along Childs' jazz-infused path - even when his material doesn't justify
extraordinary interest.
Yesterday's account sounded in firm control, the winds predominating early on before Ormrod's keyboard
contributions gained momentum. He was just deferential enough to avoid trampling his colleagues, infusing
passage-work with light, evocatively stressed fingerings.
The piano occupied a more conventional position in Beethoven's Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 16 (where the flute is
absent). Ormrod and the four winds turned in a bigboned account that acknowledged all the essential points:
spacious, yet never too aggressive. There were delights as well during Ibert's "Trois Pieces Breves,'' where the
quicker and more precise the scorings, the feistier the performances.
Two arrangements proved modestly distinctive. Mozart's Fantasy for Mechanical Clock-Organ in F Minor, K. 594,
was played in Mordechai Rechtman's facile recasting for wind ensemble.
Ronald Roseman's Renaissance Suite - transcriptions of five short pieces by Heinrich Isaac, Pierre Passereau and
Girolamo Cavazzoni - was inauthentic. But the musicianship satisfied without complaint.